Box or can.



Patented Oct. 3|, I899. .W. H. BUTLER.

BOX 0B -CAN.

( Application filed Apr. 7, 1896.)

'(No Model.)

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NITED' STATES PAT NT Fries.

WILLIAM H. BUTLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

BOX 0R CAN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Eatent No. 635,953, dated October 31, 1899.

Application filed April '7, 1896. Serial No. 586,502. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. BUTLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, (Brooklyn,) county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boxes or Cans, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved cover construction for boxes and cans especially adapted for use in common circular sheet-metal boxes and cans now in general use for holding various articles, but which may be applied also to boxes and cans of other character and material.

The invention relates to that class of boxes or cans in which one member is provided with a slightly-inclined surface coacting with an engaging surface on the other member, so that the engaging surface moves upthe incline as the cover is forced onto the box or can, and the cover is thus held more firmly the farther on it is pressed, and the invention includes an improved construction of boxes or cans employing this general principle, as fully described and claimed hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a box embodying the invention in one of the preferred forms, and Figs.

2, 3, and 4 are similar partial views showing modified constructions.

In each of the views, A is the circular box or can, and B the screw-cover, which may be made wholly or partially of sheet metal, as usual in such constructions. As shown in Fig. 1, the body A is provided at the top with an internal bead 1, formed by rolling over the edge of the sheet metal forming the body, a wire being inserted or not, as preferred. The screw-cover B has a straight sheet-metal flange 2, overlapping and screwing onto the outside of the box by screw-threads 5, and a thicker metal rim 3, having a depending flange 4, projecting inside the box, and the external surface of this flange 4 tapers inwardly slightly, so as to form a slight incline engaging the rib 1. By screwing down the cover B, therefore, the rib 2, which forms the engaging surface coacting with the incline, will move up the inclined flange 1 or toward that part which is of larger circumference, and thus lock the cover on the box more firmly as the cover is pressed down, while the flange 2 moves over the outside of the body A and supports the latter against the locking pressure. The same result may be secured by various constructions.

In Fig. 2 the body A is provided with an internal inclined flange 6, formed by bending over the top of the sheet-metal body, and the screw-cover B is shown as formed of a single piece of sheet metal, having the outside straight flange 2 and inside flange 4 of the same form as previously described in connection with Fig. 1.

In Fig. 3 is shown a construction similar to that shown in Fig. 1, except that the cover is formed throughout of sheet metal and the 7c body is provided with a pin or projection 7 and the cover with a slot or groove 8, extending circumferentially of the box and being inclined toward the bottom of the box at a slight angle, so that by rotating the cover uponthe box, and thus moving the slot 8 along the pin 7, the cover is pressed down, securing the same result as the screw-threads 5.

It will be understood that the pin and slot may be arranged as shown, with the pin on the box and the slot on the cover, or this arrange ment may be reversed, and that this pinand-slot connection may be made in any suitable manner, the pin being formed by striking up a part of the metal or inserting a pin, as preferred, and the slot or groove being formed by cutting away or striking up the metal. Any other form of inclined or screw connection may be used.

In all the constructions thus far described the inclines are inside the box. It may frequently be preferable, however, to form the incline external to the box, and one form of such box is shown in Fig. 4. In this construction the circular sheet-metal box A is 5 provided with a rib 9, similar to rib 1 of Figs.

1 and 3, except that it is formed by rolling the edges of the box outwardly instead of inwardly, and the sheet-metal cover B is provided with a straight internal flange 10, entering the box and corresponding to the external flange 2 of the constructions previously other member having an incline engaging surface, and an inclined or screw connection between the cover and box, whereby the r0- tation of the cover presses the cover onto the box, forces the engaging surface up the incline and locks the cover in place, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribingwitnesses;

WILLIAM H. BUTLER.

W'itnessesi JOHN J. OKEEFFE, E. '1. SMITH. 

